Duty on the iPhone Windsor-Detroit

I am a Canadian and I'm going over to detroit on Sunday to pickup an iPhone at the Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi. I am obviously going to tell customs i bought the iPhone there, but for anyone who has done the travel, do you know how much they make you pay in duty? I'm almost thinking I might send it to myself in the mail and write it off as a $50 gift.

Is there anything i can say to make the duty cost less, like a business expense or something?

I am a Canadian and I'm going over to detroit on Sunday to pickup an iPhone at the Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi. I am obviously going to tell customs i bought the iPhone there, but for anyone who has done the travel, do you know how much they make you pay in duty? I'm almost thinking I might send it to myself in the mail and write it off as a $50 gift.

Is there anything i can say to make the duty cost less, like a business expense or something?

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If you are in the States less than 48 hours your personal exemption is $50.
48hours up to 7 days it is $400. 7 days or more, $750. Anything you buy above those limits you pay GST and PST.

Hypothetically, after you buy the iPhone, you can ditch the packaging and stick the iPhone into your pocket as if you already had the it before you went over to the U.S..

This is all hypothetical of course, I would never advocate trying to avoid paying duties that you are legally responsible for

You don't need the packaging for any reason, including warranty. If you really want the packaging, you could always mail that to yourself while you are still there.

Let's just say that while I was living in Toronto, I hypothetically bought my MacBook in Buffalo and I hypothetically brought my laptop bag with me and I hypothetically ditched the box and hypothetically brought the MacBook back with me as I traveled back from Buffalo with it. I hypothetically saved myself between $300-400 overall because of the dollar (it was at $1.10 at the time), the price differences at the Apple Stores between Canada and the U.S. and the lack of duties and taxes. We weren't stopped at the border anyway, we said that we were visiting family (which was true) and didn't really do any shopping.

Hypothetically, after you buy the iPhone, you can ditch the packaging and stick the iPhone into your pocket as if you already had the it before you went over to the U.S..

This is all hypothetical of course, I would never advocate trying to avoid paying duties that you are legally responsible for

You don't need the packaging for any reason, including warranty. If you really want the packaging, you could always mail that to yourself while you are still there.

Let's just say that while I was living in Toronto, I hypothetically bought my MacBook in Buffalo and I hypothetically brought my laptop bag with me and I hypothetically ditched the box and hypothetically brought the MacBook back with me as I traveled to Buffalo with it. I hypothetically saved myself between $300-400 overall because of the dollar (it was at $1.10 at the time) and the lack of duties and taxes. We weren't stopped at the border anyway, we said that we were visiting family (which was true) and didn't really do any shopping.

If you are in the States less than 48 hours your personal exemption is $50.
48hours up to 7 days it is $400. 7 days or more, $750. Anything you buy above those limits you pay GST and PST.

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The exemptions listed above are not are not clear.

The correct exemptions are:
24 hours or more the exemption is $50
48 hours or more the exemption is $400.
7 days or more the exemption is $750.
So you need to be in the US at lease 24 hours before you can receive any exemption.

In my experience, Canada Customs is more concerned with cigarettes and booze. Everybody's got a cell phone, every car that crosses the border has one inside; they're commodity items. Unless you make an issue of it, they won't even care. Duty on cell phones is probably near zero anyway. Be prepared for a full-on grilling on the way into the states BTW, US Customs are hardcore and they'll probably want to go through your trunk and everything.

Oh, and take the tunnel, not the bridge. The Detroit side of the bridge is a construction nightmare and will be for the next two years.

Oh, and take the tunnel, not the bridge. The Detroit side of the bridge is a construction nightmare and will be for the next two years.

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Yeah, good advice.

You may also wish to call around and ask about refurbished iPhones. I'm not sure that AT&T stores in Michigan are confirmed to have them, but the refurb prices are better -- 8GB refurb = $349 from Apple and $249 from AT&T -- the condition of the phones is typically as new, full warranty, etc.

Now of all the options, Sommerset is clearly the best one in terms of shopping experiences. Of course, if you go to the Sommerset South section, a shirt will cost you more than the iPhone, but...

Wow, that's not exactly what I meant... I know that J. Crew had somehow snuck in over there, but is this really what's over there now? When I left Detroit four years ago, the Boss store with its $600 t-shirts was much more typical... Hollister?

I never found us customs to be that rough. I went earlier in the year to twelve oaks to get a macbook and they didn't even ask us what we bought. I don't care much for packaging and for $66 in duty. Also, apple always have that nifty option of sending you your receipt by email.

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